First, what are you up to now?
I’m working four jobs now! It’s crazy when football season kicks in. My 9-5 job is in banking finance – I work on loans and leases for companies.
I also help Chartiers Valley High School with their stats and give them my two-cents on ideas for plays. And I work for Pro Football Focus taking down stats on most college games – FCS and FBS mostly and the NFL sometimes. I get all the details you can imagine – from how far a quarterback drops back to the first point of contact for a running back.
With the Steelers, I now help with sales and mobile ticketing. If someone has an issue I help them and make sure they get to the game, and I’m there on game days around the stadium to help fans. It’s a different role for me than last year.
You were with the team’s video department last season, correct?
Last year I interned in the video department, yes, and filmed practices – mostly for the offensive line coach. It was a fun time being around the linemen – they have a lot more personality than most know about. I also helped Danny Smith on the sidelines – he wasn’t the most tech savvy guy! I helped him pull up plays on the Tablet when a player wanted to know what happened on a special teams play. It’s a bummer not working with Danny this year- I have nothing but great things to say about him.
Why the change?
Mr. Kahn changed the intern rules for the team – internships now only last one year, not two. That caught me off-guard a bit, but I can’t say enough nice things about him.
How did you land the internship job?
In 2011 I graduated college and knew I wanted to get into football. I sent a bunch of emails to football programs across the country and got just one back – from Duquesne. I worked there for one season and worked for my dad a bit – he had a restaurant chain. Franco Harris tried to get my dad to use this paint across his restaurants – he was starting a new paint company. I had some lunches with Franco and told him about my dream to work for the Steelers, and he told me he’d put me in touch with someone.
Well, he put me in touch with Kevin Colbert, who was so great. He was the nicest guy. You’d think a guy in that position wouldn’t respond to some college kid emailing him, but he did. I emailed him every couple of months and he responded, but there was nothing available.
Sure enough, in 2023, I got a hold of Scott Phelps who was the VP of Technology for the team. He knew about my dad’s background with Franco – he was interested in the restaurant business too. He told me about an internship opportunity that was coming up and told me to come in for an interview.
I think the fact I knew so many different football-related softwares from working at Pine-Richland, RMU, Duquesne – they all used different softwares like Hudl, Exos, DDB Sports…I think Scott liked that because if they ever changed programs he knew I was familiar with them.
So that’s how I got the position. It’s been awesome- I am so grateful for the opportunity.
What were the different things you’d do for them?
My role was primarily filming the offensive line – making sure to give Coach Meyer the angles he wanted for film study later. We also had a database of film on players throughout the NFL, so when a player would come in asking to study film on a player, I’d download that and send it to them. And I’d troubleshoot the rooms, making sure videos were pulled up right for coaches.
What were some of the most fun experiences there for you?
One of the best things was helping Andy Lizanich -he’s been there for over 30 years. We created the Powerpoint presentations for Coach Tomlin’s morning meetings. He’d give us a rough outline and we’d add the plays and things he wanted.
One of the funniest stories was Coach Tomlin talking to me about a kid who came to his house to take his daughter to the prom. He was laughing telling me the story of how this kid was shaking, scared to even ring the doorbell! He told the kid “Don’t do anything wrong with my daughter!” Just the way he told the story was funny – it was a great interaction and was just this wholesome moment of Tomlin as a dad, not this big-time head coach.
What was Danny Smith like to work with?
When we came in Fridays he’d have the video department guess how many reps the special teams guys would get in practice. He told a lot of non-PG jokes!
it was mind-blowing to him that people would send him gum and knew exactly what flavor he liked. Seeing him at games with a pocket full of gum – refs would come by and ask him for some. He was the godfather of gum there.
Any players fun to interact with?
Nate Herbig was my guy. The week before we played our first game against the Ravens, he told me he was going to make me a mix tape. We’d play music during practice and he’d ask if I knew this rapper that I never heard of. So he told me he’d make me a tape, and every week I’d ask him where it was. I’m still waiting for that tape!
Dan Moore was the nicest guy too. He was hurt last year and had cashews he’d keep around as snacks and share those with me. Ryan McCollum was a guy who always had two cents to share with you too!
Any fun moments with them?
One thing I noticed about Coach Azzanni – he was new there and had this great personality. He really knew how to relate to the receivers – really to all of the players. He knew how to manage their mindset. Some guys are outgoing, some are reserved. Some have bad days. He knows how to meet players where they are at and bring them in to where he wants them to be – to pull them in the direction he needed them. It was very interesting watching him do that.
We’d also go to Three Rivers Karting in the offseason and they’d give us cards for the arcade games. Matthew Wright and I were addicted to a clown machine there – it was a Marvel machine and we’d go back and forth trying to get things in it. It was a cool interaction – I was an intern and he was a professional kicker and we’re both geeking out over their coin machine!
And Cam Heyward – he managed to get 20 different arcade cards. I guess he knew someone!
Any advice you can give to others trying to break into sports as an intern?
My first advice is to do what you can to get your name out there. People need to know who you are. I thought I could just send a bunch of emails out and someone would respond. But if people are familiar with your name and work you’ve done that goes a lot further.
{Former Steelers Scout} Mark Gorscak also gave me some great advice. he told me that when you send emails out, lead in the header with your expertise. Like ‘Recruiting Assistant looking for job….” Selling your expertise is very important.
Read more by former Steelers via the book Steelers Takeaways: Player Memories Through the Decades. To order, just click on the book:
